Incident Command (IC) is a well-recognized standard for organizing resources during an emergency incident. From single car accidents to large-scale disasters, the amount of information that must be collected to insure the safety of the personnel, equipment, and properties involved can be significant. Various emergency services have developed their own versions of IC including the documentation for data associated with the incident. The type of emergency may alter the documentation needed. The documentation must be of good quality for possible legal use. In previous IC systems, documentation is primarily generated using paper. Documentation and transmission of incident data is critical to the success and safety of an incident response. Some incident data may be written down on paper then translated into some form of a computer entry or radioed verbally. Some information is critical in nature and is needed on a real-time basis. Other information is gathered pre and post task and consolidated later.
Generally, the transmission of incident data is verbal, done via radio. The transfer of incident data and/or paper records regarding the incident is verbally transmitted over a radio where the recipient re-records the incident data on paper. Because the incident data is re-copied over the radio by someone other than the original acquirer of the data, the likelihood of data, context, and efficiency loss is increased.
Coordinating the efforts of individual agencies or groups as they work toward the common goal of stabilizing the incident and protecting life, property, and the environment can be a complex challenge. Time is of the essence during an incident, and many manual calculations that affect safety are based on the information collected. Further, certain events during an incident, such as safety notifications, are needed but may interfere with other operations. Any reduction in time to respond to new incident data will likely translate into increased safety and reduction in risk of life. Also, any reduction in errors during the transmission of incident data due to garbled radio communication is another challenge will support increased safety and reduced risk.
Still further, the procedures and protocols of one jurisdiction (e.g. political, geographic, sector, and/or agency jurisdictions) being different from another jurisdiction create a problem when both jurisdictions respond to an incident and must interface with each other. Incident data gathered by the first jurisdiction cannot be transferred to the second jurisdiction without extensive coordination. Because data transmission methods between responding jurisdictions may differ (different radio frequencies assigned, etc), when a situation changes within one sector jurisdiction incident data regarding the change is hindered from being transmitted to another sector jurisdiction for an appropriate type response.